R.I.P. Gil Scott-Heron

[R]apper Chuck D. discusses the role Scott-Heron played in the birth of rap: "You can go into the beat poets and [Allen] Ginsberg and [Bob] Dylan, but Gil Scott-Heron is the manifestation of the modern world. He and the Last Poets set the stage for everyone else. In what way necessary? Well, if you try and make pancakes and you ain't got the water, the milk or the eggs, you're trying to do something you can't. In combining music with the word, from the voice on down, you follow the template he laid out. His rapping is rhythmic. Some of it's songs. It's punchy, and all those qualities are still used today."

[ LINK: Gil Scott-Heron dies; influential poet/musician helped inspire rap ]

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